Monday, March 8, 2010

Nash done as UH basketball coach

Are they serious? The state just imposed parking fees at the Pali Lookout this past Friday with negative fanfare. Then two days later, the university fires Nash at the cost of $240,000 that he is due for the incompleted final season under the terms of his contract, all the while, the state is broke ass and the professors, themselves, at UH have agreed to pay cuts. In all likelihood, the replacement basketball coach will probably make at least the same $240,000. Next year, then, we're talking about almost a half million in total dollars to pay for the head basketball coach's salary at the university factoring in Nash's severance payout. This amounts to the basketball equivalent of double-dribbling, economically speaking.

True, Nash had a shabby 10-20 season with a 34-56 overall record during his tenure. While this would reasonably call for coach Nash's firing in normal times, the last I checked, we're still in the midst of a recession far off from the sound of the final buzzer, as of such, the state does not have the luxury of replacing a poorly performing copying machine in an office building, much less, even entertaining the notion of ejecting a state employee whom is compensated by the tune of $240,000. To begin with, the lopsided severance terms of practically all of the coaches' contracts at UH are ridiculous. Also, I highly doubt that any new coach could turnaround UH's basketball team's dismal win-lost record during a single season or remotely put UH on the basketball map, so retaining Nash for the final year of his contract should have been a non-brainer.

4 comments:

Nate- there was a subplot related to Coach Mac's salary. The way I understood it, it was partly retaliation for June Jones decision not to remain in Hawaii even after they upped Jones' pay. Unfortunately the paymasters failed to realize that Jones was actively searching for a higher paid position months earlier. I doubt that SMU spontaneously just happened to offer him the football coaching position. What I mean, Jones is the one that approached SMU instead of the other way around. And, yeah, the new BB coach is likely to get more than $240K. The cap is $400,000/yr. However, that max is academic. These people get paid more than the governor. Sad.